The way we Listen

Let me tell you the story of the most awaited rock album of all time.

1994 - Beginning of recording

Back in 1994. US rock band Guns n’Roses are slowing down from their terrific success, experienced two years before with Use Your Illusion I & II. The band members, famous for their drinking, drug and fighting problems, were in a difficult situation, mainly because of the dictatorial mood of lead singer Axl Rose. In this context began the recording sessions of the band upcoming studio album, Chinese Democracy.

1996 - Band falls apart

Two years later, nothing done. Tension between the members is at the highest : drummer Matt Sorum, bassist Duff McKagan and guitar hero Slash leave the band to found Velvet Revolver. A new Guns n’Roses line up is created (the band’s name was property of Rose), with guitarist Robin Finck, bassist Tommy Stinson and drummer John Freese (who’ll leave right away).

2001-2002 - Live shows full of hope

January 2001, fresh new Guns give their first concerts since 7 years, including the big Rock in Rio III festival. The band announces an european tour… then cancels. Another european tour… cancelled. Then a US tour which will indeed begin in november 2002. Then blackout, the band goes on hiatus.

2006-2008 - This time it’s for real… not

Guns appears again in May 2006 with some show, followed by a world tour, ironically called "Chinese Democracy Tour". New songs are played : "Madagascar", "I.R.S.", "There Was A Time", "The Blues", "Better" et "Chinese Democracy". Several announcements made by Axl Rose seem to lead towards an upcoming release. Guest performers are quoted: Brian May, Sebastian Bach, Shaquille O’Neal (!). But… still nothing in 2006, nothing in 2007. In 2008, new rumors say the production of the album is finished, but the problem is now in the hands of record labels. In June 2008, high quality demos leaked out on the internet but were removed right away.

The release seems to be getting closer… Dr Pepper even promised to offer one can to each american people if the album comes out by the end of the year. But, after this so long waiting, we all fear that this so-called wonderful piece of rock’n'roll would be very disappointing. See you soon…

I’ve been absent for a long time, and I’m sorry! A turbulent period for me (finishing studies and entering the world of grown-ups…) ; it was also the time to stand back and think about this blog. I will be able to continue to feed it on a regular basis from now.

I also decided to write "News in brief" posts, which summarize the most important news in the world of rock, on a nearly daily basis. In the beginning, I had no ambition to make a news blog, and I decided to publish only specific information which had great significance for me. But in order to make this blog a daily venue for most of you, I decided to inform you about the latest happenings.

I will also follow my big stories such as "rock band logos, the story behind", which I will continue as soon as possible.

Musically yours !

Let us follow our little journey into the world of rock logos. In the first post I introduced the origin of the most famous logos. Let us now focus on these bands that have been rocking electric guitars for so many years now: hard rock bands.

 
From a graphical point of view, hard-rock has been quickly associated with sharp writings, spiky decals and aggressive forms. This tradition has raised as a gradual phenomenon in the history of rock as can testify the following symbols.

 AC/DC

  AC / DC is inseparable from that flash of lightning and these Gothic letters representing their logo. The symbol appeared for the first time in 1976 on an alternative version of the album High Voltage where the flash, obvious reference to the “high voltage” electricity of the disc can be noticed. But the current form of the logo (Gothic letters) has been perpetuated since the album Let There Be Rock in 1977. This design is the work of Gerard Huerta, a young American designer whose following work will be the headlogos of Time Magazine, PC Magazine and Superbowl XXVIII. Back then he was employed by the band Blue Oyster Cult for the design of their live album On Your Feet On Your Knees. The cover of this album represents a church: Huerta took inspiration on the Bible printed by Gutenberg and its calligraphy. Concerning AC / DC, Let There Be Rock is also an obvious reference to the biblical phrase Let There Be Light, therefore using a similar writing was logical. The lightning bolt between the two groups of letters also perfectly fits, representing light but also the electricity of the band (Alternative Current/Direct Current) and their music. Let There Be A Logo.

THE GRATEFUL DEAD

The symbol of the psychedelic rock band Grateful Dead has a very interesting history. The lightning bolt skull is widely known due to its simplicity (three simple colors) and its similarity with the Ying & Yang. Its origin goes back to the early years of the band in 1969, where festivals were very frequent and it was easy to confuse the boxes and equipment between the various groups that participated. At this time the band’s sound engineer of Owsley “The Bear” Stanley had the idea to put a simplistic logo on each box: a red and blue circle crossed by a white lightning. This logo will then become an emblem, through the artistic talent of Bob Thomas, a longtime friend of The Bear. A skull was added based on the white cricle. The original idea was to write the letters Grateful Dead and then create an optical effect in showing a skull if you watched from afar. The desired effect did not work but the skull itself remained. This symbol became the main visual of the band, including for their album Steal Your Face, which is the most relevant representation.

KISS

Who does not know the KISS logo? This extremely simple but so specific logo, whose “S” lettering makes it so unique. The New York hard rock band has created this symbol for their second album Hotter than Hell in 1973, at the same time they decided to adopt their now legendary costumes and makeups. Guitarist “Space Ace” Ace Frehley imagined this writing, based on the two “S” lightning bolt shapes. The symbol was recently estimated to $500 millions! Interestingly, this logo was banned in Germany since it recalls the symbol of SS. All albums of the band in Germany therefore display a logo amended where “S” looks like a reversed “Z”.

VAN HALEN

As a perfect transition, the band Van Halen was launched by KISS bassist Gene Simmons, who financed their first demos. The logo was created by designer Dave Bhang for their first eponymous album. It was obviously inspired by initials V and H, appointed to represent wings, recalling the Aerosmith logo.

ALSO…

Other well-known logos can be noticed, talking about “power” but whose history remains mainly unknown.
The famous logo of ZZ Top, with its two ZZ nested one inside the other, expresses very well the concept of acceleration, speed. It was created by Tom Hunnicutt for the album Eliminator, big success of the band in 1983, and has since been used as the official logo.

 
  Similarly, the special writing of “Metallica” was created for the first album by singer and guitarist James Hetfield in 1983.

  Finally, the logo of hard rock band Def Leppard has also become an icon : it was created for the first album On Through The Night. The triangular aspect of the logo and the letters makes it highly recognizable and has inspired many new symbols thereafter.

As a conclusion, it is clear that these bands share much more than just a musical style. It is almost a philosophy of life, a very close mindset, which is very well captured in these logos. The theme of electricity, the main energy for hard rock guitars is heavily used as an image.

This series will continue, in order to show you even more exciting stories about these symbols of rock.

Sources : http://pictograms.blogspot.com/, http://www.intuitivedesigns.net/top-10-rock-band-logos/

I just got the latest Def Leppard album : “Songs from the Sparkle Lounge”. The disc of the english hard rock band was released on Monday April 29th… I was waiting for it a lot!

I wanted to share with you my very first impressions, as I discover the songs. So I tried a new way of blogging, through Twitter.

In a few words, Twitter is a micro-blogging service, which has become very popular, especially in the US, thanks to the simplicity of use. I suggest you to take a look at this service and then add me to your “followings”.

I decided to post on my Twitter feed, one post for each song as I discover it, and share my very first feeling about the song.

Let me tell you that since then, I’ve been listening to this album on and on… Therefore I will write a classic review later on! But I’ll also continue with the “twitreviews” for the next discoveries.

The news has just been posted on Genesis official website. The DVD capturing the 2007 reunion tour of the band is coming out on May 26th, 2008 !

So watch out and be ready to buy your copy of this treasure.

What a surprise! I’m just back from holidays and I discover my blog totally messed up, with database errors all over the place… Another issue from my current webhost, which adds up with several offline cuts during entire days! This time it’s official, I’m migrating to another webhost!

Here I am now at OVH, where I can use a professional hosting titled “90 PLAN”, with a similar price. The solidity and reliability of OVH made me pick them… I’m now performing the transformation.

If you find any problem, please give me the word! Thank you.